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Many people know the names Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison. However, most
people don’t know the name of the man who invented the television, Philo Farnsworth.

Philo Taylor Farnsworth was born in 1906 and grew up on a potato farm. As a boy, he loved
to learn about science, and he read a lot of science books. When he was only thirteen years
old, he drew a picture of a machine that could send pictures as radio sends sounds.

He got the idea from the way the potatoes were planted in the field. The potatoes grew in
long lines, side by side. This made a shape in Philo’s mind. This shape helped Philo think of a
way to send the TV picture onto a piece of glass. But he was poor, so Philo could not try to
make his idea into a machine at that time.

Later, Philo worked at many different jobs. He worked with trees. He worked on broken
radios. He worked on trains. He also worked as a street cleaner. At last, two rich men heard
about his idea for television, and they gave him the money to make it. On September 7th,
1927, they watched Philo test the machine he built. When Philo turned on the machine, a
small line could be seen on the glass. Philo said, “There you have it, electric television.”

Later, a big company, RCA, said they had made the first television. Philo had to spend a lot
of money on lawyers to fight them. Finally, he won. Then, World War Two started in 1939.
During the war, Philo spent a lot of money helping the US army instead of building up his
television company.

After the war, other bigger, richer companies started making televisions. In the end, Philo
had to sell his company.

Read the passage then answer the questions:

1. Why does the author mention Bell and Edison at the beginning of the text?
 A. To remember both of them.
 B. To prove their wisdom.
 C. To introduce the topic of the text.
 D. To explain their relationships.
2. According to the text, how old was Philo when he finished his invention of the TV?

 A. 27 years old.
 B. 21 years old.
 C. 33 years old
 D. 39 years old
3. Philo Farnsworth got the idea for TV from:

 A. the radio
 B. science books
 C. potato fields
 D. a machine
4. The phrase in bold “building up” in the last paragraph probably means:

 A. starting
 B. selling
 C. putting up
 D. making bigger
5. Put the following events in the correct order:

 a. Two rich men gave Philo money to do experiments.

 b. Philo sold his own company.
 c. Philo beat RCA in law.
 d. Philo fixed broken radios.
 e. Philo showed his invention to others.
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Alex knew colors and shapes. He learned about 150 English words. With his language ability,
he made himself known as perhaps the world’s most famous talking bird．

But Alex, a parrot, died two weeks ago when he was 31. Irene, a psychologist at Harvard
University, studied and worked with the parrot for nearly 30 years．

In 1977, Irene, then an excellent student in chemistry at Harvard, bought Alex from a pet
store. At that time, scientists were not quite sure whether birds could learn to communicate
with humans．

But using the methods of teaching, Irene helped Alex to learn about 150 words, and to
count small numbers, as well as colors and shapes．

In experiments, Irene would give Alex a small reward, like a grape. Alex learned to ask for
the grape by watching what the trainer was doing to get it. The researchers then worked
with the bird to help him with pronunciation．

Alex showed a surprising ability to learn. For example, when he was shown a blue paper
circle. He could tell what color the paper was, what shape it was, and after touching it, what
it was made of．

Like other parrots, he also picked up some words when staying in the lab, like“calm down”
and “good morning”. He could also show his happiness and sadness．

Even before the week he died, Alex was working with Irene on difficult words. As she put
him into his cage for the night that Thursday, Irene said that Alex looked at her and said,
“You be good. See you tomorrow. I love you. ”

He was found dead in his cage the next morning.

Read the passage then answer the questions:

1. Alex is the name of:

 A．an excellent student
 B．a clever bird
 C．a trainer
 D．a psychologist
2. How did Irene get the parrot?

 A．A friend gave it to her.

 B．She caught it in a forest．
 C．She bought it from a pet store.
 D．The passage doesn’t mention it．
3. The underlined words“picked up” in bold mean: ______

4. The passage is probably taken from a __:

 A. history textbook
 B. novel
 C. newspaper
 D. dictionary
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One day while walking along the bank of a river, a rabbit couple saw a wounded ant lying
unconsciously on the grass. The rabbit couple gently put the ant on the leaf of a nearby
plant. She soon recovered and saw the rabbit couple sitting beside her.

The ant remembered that she had found herself under the foot of a cat by chance and
fainted. She asked how she reached the leaf top. The rabbit couple told her what had
happened. The ant thanked them and said she would help them when they needed help.

The rabbit couple went further up the river to enjoy the bright sun. They had been there
many times and would spend many hours playing and relaxing in the sun.

One fine day, the couple were again on their way to the river while the ant was playing on
the leaf of a tree. She saw the rabbit couple walking towards the river. A few hours later she
saw the rabbit couple sleeping peacefully on the soft grass by the river.

Suddenly she saw a lion moving towards the grass where the rabbit couple were sleeping.
The loin saw the rabbit sleeping and started walking quietly to attack them.

Realizing the hazard getting close to the rabbits, the ant jumped from the leaf to the lion’s
shoulder and bit the lion’s back. The lion cried out in pain, waking the rabbit couple.

The rabbits ran away quickly and the ant jumped off the lion’s back into the grass.

A white pigeon who watched this event cheered at the courage of the ant and told the
whole story to the rabbits. The rabbit couple were happy and thanked the ant. They became
best friends.

Read the passage then answer the questions:

From the first three paragraphs, we can learn that:

 A．the rabbit couple put the ant on the leaf of a plant to hide her
 B．the ant was wounded after fighting with a cat
 C．the rabbit couple and the ant knew each other very well before
 D．the rabbit couple often went to the river
2. According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?

 A．The ant was hurt by the lion.

 B．The ant was small but clever.
 C．The white pigeon was as brave as the ant.
 D．The lion wanted to play a joke on the rabbit couple.
3. According to the passage, which is the correct order of the following events?

 a. The ant jumped into the grass to hide.

 b. The ant bit the lion’s back.
 c. The lion moved towards the rabbit couple.
 d. The rabbit couple saved the ant.
 e. The ant saw the rabbit couple sleeping on the grass.
4. The word “hazard” in bold probably means:

 A．reality
 B．warning
 C．experience
 D．danger